EssentialPIM: Free Appointment / Contact / Password Manager

We all have busy lives and way too much information to keep track of. Whether it’s the non-stop flood of e-mail, keeping track of appointments and obligations, keeping on top of a task list or just remember all the different passwords for websites and online services. Have you ever wished there was a software program that would let you do the all of the following:

Schedule and Track Appointments

Make To-Do Lists

Manage Contacts

Manage E-mail

Track and Manage Passwords

I know you’re probably thinking right now “Sure, that’s Microsoft Outlook which isn’t free at all, it costs a lot of money.” EssentialPIM, which shares most of the popular features of Microsoft Outlook, is the most comprehensive free personal information manager (PIM for short) I’ve ever used. The setup is as simple as downloading the installer[1] and following the simple, guided instructions. Once you’ve installed and run EssentialPIM you’ll be greeted by the EPIM Today screen showing you an overview of your day and upcoming items.

EssentialPIM includes a full e-mail client with support for POP3, IMAP and Exchange mailboxes. Adding your e-mail account to EssentialPIM is as easy as clicking on Mail on the left side menu, clicking Tools, clicking Account Settings and then clicking Add. You’ll be walked through a setup wizard to add your e-mail provider’s information.

The To-Do list allows you to note only list a subject and location, but put in detailed data like the start and end time, priority, notes and even setup reminders. Once you’ve added To-Do lists you can right click them to track how much you’ve completed, make changes or even make copies of tasks you have to repeat.

The password saver functionality of the program is especially nice, since it allows you to save your username and password securely. You can even generate random passwords for each site by clicking Gen in the Add Entry form. This feature lets you have secure random passwords for each website you use so if one is compromised the hackers don’t have your password for every site. You can even password protect EssentialPIM from unauthorized viewing by going to the File menu and clicking Password Protect.

There are so many great features in this program, it is really amazing that it’s free. There is a pro version which allows you to automatically sync information to Google’s Cloud services and Microsoft Outlook, among other features for $39.95. While some of these features in the pro version are quite nice, it is in no way required or even a needed upgrade from the free version for most users.

You can read more about EssentialPIM and download the program by clicking here[2].